26, no savings feel stuck

Flowers123

Evening Houseplant. Does your grocery budget include household things like cleaning products etc or is that included with your toiletries? I'm struggling with deciding how to split it all down. I'm thinking it may be best to include a small amount to save for presents and Christmas as it will be fast approaching. I'm not including any money for clothes either but only at the moment until I'm well on my way to getting rid of some of my debt. Have you budgeted anything for transport costs? Like getting the bus or train occasionally if needed. Your mobile bill seems high, are you near the end of your contract? You could then keep your phone if it's still working and find a sim only plan x

Houseplant26

Flowers123 wrote: »

Evening Houseplant. Does your grocery budget include household things like cleaning products etc or is that included with your toiletries? I'm struggling with deciding how to split it all down. I'm thinking it may be best to include a small amount to save for presents and Christmas as it will be fast approaching. I'm not including any money for clothes either but only at the moment until I'm well on my way to getting rid of some of my debt. Have you budgeted anything for transport costs? Like getting the bus or train occasionally if needed. Your mobile bill seems high, are you near the end of your contract? You could then keep your phone if it's still working and find a sim only plan x

Hey Flowers,

I think I might change 'food' to include or add a separate 'household items' and include all cleaning stuff and maybe any spare can go towards items for the flat. I don't need to use transport often but I might add a tenner a month in to cover anything that comes up and so I feel I could go out further afield for the day. Sadly I think I've got a way to go with the phone contract but I will try to call them to check at some point.

Realised I did my maths quite wrong! I'll get there eventually...

mashedavocado

Hello Houseplant. You sound a lot like me! I'm a couple of years older and have a child (and another on the way...) but I used to live and spend very similarly to you it sounds.

I'm by no means perfect now but I did manage to cut back a little (the shock of having to save for maternity leave #1 had that effect!). Logging everything is key, I'd say. We used YNAB and it worked brilliantly. I've fallen off the wagon with it a little bit lately but have made myself a big spreadsheet to keep track.

Definitely factor in an amount for Christmas and birthdays. I do a monthly budget and try and think about any birthdays coming up that month (and things like Mother's/Father's Day). Also factor yourself something in for clothes/shoes - you might not need something every month but if winter comes and you need a new coat you'll be glad to have a bit of a buffer.

My OH and I have shared our finances completely for a few years now but we've tried a few different ways of doing things. He is not good at this so it falls to me Our current set up is as follows:

- Main bank acc - all income and majority of expenditure goes into and comes from here. We each take out cash on a Friday to do us for the week. I currently take out £30 and find this is plenty to cover my lunches at work (I try to commit to a packed lunch but it doesn't always work...) and for me and my daughter to do something on my day off. Everything else - groceries, bus fares, petrol, clothing, whatever - is all paid by card. I don't log what I spend my cash on but I do log absolutely all of our transactions from our bank statement.

- Everyday savings account - we put a set amount into this each month for things like home/car insurance, Christmas, etc. Goes the day of OH's payday so we don't miss it.

- 'Big' savings account - this is a TSB 5% acc that we try not to touch (though it has dwindled lately as we had some big home repairs). I just bounce money in and out of it each month to keep the balance steady and make sure we get the rewards.

- OH has a share save scheme through work (well, two) - that's the bulk of our savings. The peace of mind is that it can be cashed in at any time but if we wait for maturity we should see a decent return.

We've just switched our bank acc to Co-Op so should see £150 come in there, plus £50 from a cashback site, and then the monthly rewards too

Flowers123

Nearly the weekend Houseplant :j:j are you doing anything nice? I'm struggling with this budgeting so I've downloaded a free spending app for my iPad. When I log on to MSE I'm going to log every single penny I spend on the app so I can keep track of my budget through the month :T

Houseplant26

Hi Mashedavo,

Thanks for taking the time to write that post it was very helpful. Congratulations on being a mummy! I think I'd like kids one day so it's nice to here of people managing to have control of their finances with children. I feel like I'd need to be earning a bit more and have some savings to feel ready to have a baby.

Noted about factoring budget for clothes and presents. A buffer is a good idea. I think what's daunting me is the organisation needed to keep these pots separate and on check. I'm debating options at the moment like do I take money out put in separate envelopes to dip into or something else? Do I put unused envelope money into a savings account or let roll over etc etc? I get a bit overwhelmed!

I've been useless lately feeling absolutely exhausted from work and maybe some sort of cold or virus and I haven't even managed to find the energy to write down in my diary all purchases like I planned to. I seem to be managing to stick to my £50 cash a week budget (which includes groceries currently) but I have also had to buy the odd lunch item or pre done pizza and salad for tea due to being too tired to do as much batch cooking as I often would.

I'll get there! Probably do need to talk to the fella about putting more money into joint and using that account to buy groceries, just sounds a little bit harder to monitor. Although really it should be easier!

Houseplant26

Hi Flowers,

I work weekends either one day or both so I don't get quite as much of he Friday feeling sadly!
No plans yet trying to keep spending down need to make more plans I'm living a bit day to day at the moment. I'm just very knackered! It's kind of reassuring to hear you're struggling with budgeting too we will find it easier in time I'm sure. I think a big achievement is recognising we need to cut back a bit and make savings and I'm sure we're both changing behaviours due to it.

Ps I saw your post about your holidays on your thread and I was a bit jealous, you've been to some awesome places. I need to get my save on so I can visit some of them too!! I need to try and use travel as a motivator maybe I need to pin a map on my wall and plan where I want to go to. I've been abroad but mainly Europe and for a weekend.

anoncol

kingrulzuk wrote: »

Single person council tax in Edinburgh: £80 a month
electricity bill: around £10 to £20 summer/ winter
food bill: I try to keep it under £50 a month
and I keep £50 for extras

How are you on the internet?

TomJ

The TSB Plus account's been mentioned for its 5% interest, but 5 % cashback on contactless payments isn't to be ignored, especially if you regularly shop somewhere which takes contactless. If, for the sake of argument, you spend your £80 at a supermarket which takes it and don't change your spending habits otherwise you would have an extra £4 to stick into the savings pot, or almost £50 a year.

I aim spend on plastic wherever possible, using the cards I have in this order:

TSB debit card x2 (for 5% cashback on contactless payments)
Santander 1-2-3 credit card (for 3% cashback on petrol/rail)
Co-op debit card (for payments under £5, to get 5p cashback; on over £5 this is less than 1% so...)
MBNA Rewards AmEx (for 1% cashback on payments over £5 where contactless not available)

I don't think the MBNA one is available any more, but TSB do a credit card which does 1% cashback. It also offers 20 months interest free on purchases, which can be worth more than the 5% cashback from the debit card as, as long as you are make sure you keep enough money to pay it off over and above what you consider savings, you can earn more than that in interest. One way of doing this is to open an account and each month, when you receive your credit card statement, pay the total you've spent that month into it, less the minimum monthly payment on the card which you should be paying by direct debit. When the interest free period comes to an end, pay off the card and all the interest and accumulated cashback can top up your savings.

I understand being nervous of 0% credit cards but they are sweating a little more money out of the banks.

*EDIT* Actually, having run a spreadsheet because I realised I wasn't sure of my figures, the 5% cashback is worth more unless you can save the cash at more than 5%. However, it's only available on contactless payments, so it's still worth considering a cashback card for places that don't do contacless.

Flowers123

Hi Houseplant. On a positive note you get days off in the week when the world and their wives aren't out the holidays were amazing but I should have stopped and thought about it before getting myself into debt. Traveling is something I love and you get to meet so many interesting people and visit incredible places. Make sure you save if you're thinking of going away, I would love to go back to America so once I've got to grips with my budgeting I'm going to put a small amount away in a seperate account to keep me motivated towards paying off my debt and going on holiday.

I've seen you're sticking to a £50 budget a week. I'm very impressed, I may pinch this idea off you :j

If you're knackered after work why don't you get a few things in the freezer to have. You may not want to take any cooking ideas off me as I'm awful at it :rotfl: but I am exhausted most nights so i make sure I have fish fingers so I can have fish finger sandwiches and ketchup or a frozen pizza. *ldi have a pizza for only 89p :T

Houseplant26

Flowers fish finger sandwiches are literally the best thing!